No one really knows how many of Louisiana's approximately 480,000
national flood insurance policy holders will see their annual payments climb if
the U.S. Congress doesn't find a fix for the Biggert-Waters Act, passed in 2012. Not
even FEMA knows, according to several experts and elected officials familiar
with the issue.

Thousands of people could already be seeing an effect, because
the first part of the act came online Oct. 1, but many more could see their
premiums skyrocket next fall, when another provision of the bill is scheduled
to take affect.

FEMA agency did not respond to requests from NOLA.com | The Times-Picayunefor a comment on this
story.

The Biggert-Waters Act is designed to make the National Flood Insurance
Program solvent; the program was paying out more than it was taking in after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. In an effort to keep the program in the
black, Congress has stripped subsidies from many flood policies and
would reclassify some communities from low-risk to high-risk on federal flood
maps, causing insurance premiums to increase.

Keep in mind that in some cases, flood insurance premiums
could go down under Biggert-Waters, especially if protection around a property has improved. People
who live behind the state-of-the-art $14.5 billion levee system that covers New
Orleans and parts of St. Charles, Jefferson, St. Bernard and Plaquemines
parishes, for example, may see their flood insurance payments shrink.

The following is a list of scenarios where people are likely
to be hit with higher flood insurance rates:

*If you pay flood
insurance, you bought your house after July, 6 2012, and your home was built
before 1973, you might be hit with a higher payment this year.

Those houses that were built before a flood insurance rate
map was established in a community currently have subsidized flood insurance
rates. The first flood insurance rate maps were created in 1973, so if your
house was constructed before then, you are likely to be affected.

Though FEMA has opted to keep the subsidized rates for most
homeowners, those who have recently purchased their homes are subject to
unsubsidized rate, which can be nine-or-tenfold the previous rate.

*If you pay flood
insurance on a business property or secondary home and your building or home
was built before 1973, you might be hit with a higher payment this year.

Those buildings erected before a flood insurance rate map
was established in a community have had subsidized flood insurance rates. The
first flood insurance maps were created in 1973, so if your building was
constructed before then, you are likely to be affected.

The increase will not come all once, as it does for the new
homeowners in the situation above. It will be phased in through 25 percent increases every year
until the full premium is reached. The "full" premium could still be several
times what is currently paid, however.

*If you pay flood
insurance on a home that was built before 1973 and you bought it more than two years
ago, you might not see an increase in your flood insurance now, but you could
have a difficult time finding a buyer for your house in the future.

People who bought their pre-1973 homes before July 6, 2012,
will not see an increase in their current flood insurance rates, but the next
owners of their homes certainly will. These rates could be incredibly high -- one citizen
found her new rate to be $24,000 annually -- and that might make it difficult to
find buyers for these homes. People might shy away from purchasing a
property with incredibly high flood insurance rates.

*If you have made adjustments to your home or business property to
comply with a previous flood map, but FEMA has upgraded the "risk factor" of
your community in a new map, then you may end up paying higher premiums next
year.

FEMA refers to properties that were originally built outside a flood zone, but later included in a flood zone, as "grandfathered"
properties. The term also applies to properties that were in a low-risk area, then moved to a higher-risk area.

Many of these buildings carry a lower insurance rate because
they are often "grandfathered" into whatever premium payment they had while
they were at lower risk for flooding. Starting next year, these properties
would start to carry a flood insurance premium that corresponds more closely to
their current flood risk. These new higher rates would be phased in over time,
but still could result in a year-to-year increase of several hundred
dollars.